22 Nov 2012

Santoku Knife & Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Hello everyone, how's everything going?
I can feel I'm slightly packing on some pounds.
Oh dear... Is this the consequence of cooking and baking constantly every single week?
How I wish melting away the unwanted excess fat on your body is as easy as melting a chunk of butter in the microwave.Come on science, I'm counting on you!
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Since I'm living in a share house where I basically live with a bunch of housemates, there are some things that bugs me in the kitchen. Messy tables, food scraps and stains not being wiped off properly, dishes not being cleaned for days, and so on.
But one of the thing that really puts me into bad mood is a blunt knife.How on earth do we cut stuff with a blunt knife?
It will take forever and the result will mostly be uneven and poorly cut. I think it's the perfectionist inside of me that makes me concerned about the tiniest most unimportant things when it comes to cutting/slicing.
I have been complaining about this for a long time and yesterday I finally did something about it.I bought my first ever good quality knife!

I was looking for an all rounder chef's knife but the store that I went to only have the Santoku knife (which is actually similar to the general chef's knives).
I bought the cheapest one from King of Knives, $35 for a Bruno Barontini 7'' Santoku Knife (it was on sale). It was definitely the cheaper option in the store, compared to other knives that sells for $135.. even more.
To be honest, I don't really know the difference between those brands and why do they have such a big gap between their prices. I assume it's the materials that they use. But I wont be buying the expensive ones just yet. Probably later when I become a better cook, which will take a while.
I went nuts and sliced 3 carrots when I got home just to try the new knife. Now I have a whole container of carrots in my fridge! This knife is super sharp ! I'm in love!

ps. Not being a mean but I will not be sharing this knife with others.. This will be my personal and private go to knife !

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No matter how bad they are for your health, I always fall for chicken nuggets. I have random cravings of McDonald's nuggets every now and then and when I want them.. I WILL eat them.
I made this healthier (I hope) version of chicken nuggets which I think will work brilliantly when baked in an oven. Since I don't have an oven at home, I pan fry them in olive oil instead and it works just fine.

The thing I hate about crumbing chicken is the dirty dishes that will be piled up in the sink afterwards. One bowl for the flour, one for the egg, another one for the breadcrumbs and not to mention the pan, knife, chopping board and tongs. Ppfffttt.. My chicken nuggets will be cold by the time I'm finished with the dishes (yes, I prefer to clean everything first before I eat).
Thus, I used the ziplock bag trick that a lot of people use for crumbing process. I wonder why didn't I think of that ?? It's a lot more efficient and fuss-free, perfect for a lazy cook like me. ha!
I used a whole skinless chicken breast for this.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets with Lemon Wedges
serving : 1-2 people

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken breast cut into nugget size pieces (make sure that the thickness is uniformed so it will take them roughly the same time to cook)

6 heap-tablespoons flour

2 eggs

panko breadcrumbs or regular breadcrumbs

salt and pepper

olive oil

Lemon, cut into wedges

1. Generously season the chicken breast which have been cut into smaller pieces with salt and pepper, set aside.

2. Put (separately) the flour, eggs and breadcrumbs into sandwich size ziplock bags (use bigger ziplock bags if needed). You can beat the eggs by scrunching and shaking the bag (less bowl to wash!)

4. Take out the chicken pieces, shake off the excess flour from each piece and put them into the egg bag, seal it, shake to coat!

5. Finally, take out the chicken and transfer them into the breadcrumb bag and once again, seal and shake to coat. Make sure that each pieces of chicken is coated with breadcrumb

6. Heat the pan on medium and add a 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil.

7. When the pan is hot, take out the chicken from the bag one by one and arrange them on the pan. It should make that beautiful sizzling noise. Do it in batches if your pan is small.

8. Let the nuggets cook for about 3 minutes on each side (depends on the thickness of the nuggets) / until golden brown. Add more olive oil if needed along the way.

9. When it's done, put it on a plate with a few slices of lemon wedges. Squeeze the lemon on top of the chicken for extra zing before eating them!

This tasted great and very simple to make!

I was paying a lot of attention to make sure my nuggets are cooked well without being dry and over cooked like I used to make and was satisfied with the end result :)

I love how convenient the ziplock method is, you just need to toss them out when you're finished (because you can't use the leftover flour, egg and breadcrumbs anyway). How I wish I could use this method for everything.